ENEM Human Sciences Flashcards

24 sample cards from the Human Sciences deck

Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.

1. Define globalization and identify its main driving forces.

   Globalization is the growing worldwide integration of economies, cultures, and information. It is driven by advances in transport and telecommunications (internet), transnational corporations, trade liberalization, and financial deregulation.

2. In Geopolitics, what was the bipolar world order and what replaced it after 1991?

   During the Cold War the world was bipolar (USA vs. USSR). After the USSR's collapse in 1991, analysts describe a multipolar order with multiple centers of power (USA, EU, China, Japan, emerging blocs), or a brief US-led unipolar moment.

3. What is the geopolitical classification of countries by development, and what replaced the 'Three Worlds' model?

   The Cold War 'Three Worlds' (1st capitalist, 2nd socialist, 3rd underdeveloped) was replaced after 1991 by the North–South divide: the developed 'Global North' versus the developing/underdeveloped 'Global South'.

4. Name three major economic blocs and their type of integration.

   European Union (EU): economic and monetary union (common currency, free movement). Mercosur: common market (in progress). USMCA/NAFTA: free-trade area. Blocs deepen from free-trade area → customs union → common market → economic union.

5. In Brazilian Geography, name Brazil's five official regions and one defining trait of each.

   North (Amazon rainforest, low density), Northeast (semi-arid sertão, historic sugar economy), Center-West (Cerrado, agribusiness), Southeast (most populous and industrialized), South (subtropical climate, European colonization, high HDI).

6. What are Brazil's main biomes (domínios morfoclimáticos)?

   Amazônia (equatorial rainforest), Cerrado (tropical savanna), Caatinga (semi-arid), Mata Atlântica (Atlantic forest), Pantanal (wetland), and Pampa/Campos Sulinos (southern grasslands).

7. Describe the pattern of Brazilian urbanization in the 20th century.

   Brazil urbanized rapidly and late (mid-20th c.), driven by rural exodus toward the industrializing Southeast. It produced macrocephalic cities, favelas, informal work, and metropolization, with over 80% of the population now urban.

8. In Ancient Philosophy, what marked the shift from mythological (mito) to rational (logos) thought among the Pre-Socratics?

   The Pre-Socratics sought a natural, rational principle (arché) explaining the origin of all things (e.g., Thales: water; Heraclitus: fire/becoming; Parmenides: unchanging being), replacing mythological explanations with reasoned inquiry (physis).

9. Contrast Plato's and Aristotle's theories of knowledge and reality.

   Plato: reality lies in the immaterial, eternal World of Ideas/Forms, known through reason; the sensible world is mere copy (Allegory of the Cave). Aristotle: reality is in concrete substances uniting form and matter, and knowledge begins in sense experience (empiricism).

10. What is the Socratic method and its purpose?

    The Socratic method combines irony (exposing the interlocutor's ignorance) and maieutics ('giving birth' to ideas through questioning). Its aim is self-knowledge ('know thyself') and reaching truth via dialogue, following 'I know that I know nothing.'

11. In Medieval Philosophy, what is Scholasticism and its central problem?

    Scholasticism was the medieval effort to reconcile faith and reason. Its central problem was harmonizing religious dogma with philosophy, notably Thomas Aquinas synthesizing Christian doctrine with Aristotle ('fides et ratio').

12. Distinguish Patristics from Scholasticism.

    Patristics (2nd–8th c., e.g., St. Augustine) built Christian doctrine using Platonic/Neoplatonic thought, subordinating reason to faith. Scholasticism (9th–14th c., e.g., Aquinas) systematized theology using Aristotelian logic in universities, seeking a balance of faith and reason.

13. In Modern Philosophy, contrast Rationalism with Empiricism.

    Rationalism (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) holds reason and innate ideas as the source of true knowledge ('Cogito, ergo sum'). Empiricism (Locke, Hume, Bacon) holds that all knowledge derives from sense experience (the mind as 'tabula rasa').

14. What is Descartes' methodic doubt and its first certainty?

    Methodic doubt systematically doubts everything that can be doubted to find an indubitable foundation. The first certainty is 'Cogito, ergo sum' (I think, therefore I am): even while doubting, the thinking self must exist.

15. Summarize Kant's synthesis of rationalism and empiricism.

    Kant argued knowledge requires both experience (sensory content) and the mind's a priori categories (form): 'thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.' We know phenomena (as they appear), never the noumenon (thing-in-itself).

16. In Contemporary Philosophy, what did Nietzsche mean by 'God is dead' and the transvaluation of values?

    'God is dead' signals the collapse of absolute (Christian/Platonic) foundations for morality. Nietzsche called for a transvaluation of values, rejecting slave morality, affirming the will to power and life (the Übermensch creating new values).

17. What is the core of Marx's philosophy of historical materialism?

    Historical materialism holds that the economic base (means and relations of production) determines society's superstructure (politics, law, ideology). History advances through class struggle, and capitalism generates worker alienation and exploitation (mais-valia).

18. In Ethics and Politics, distinguish ethics from morality.

    Morality (moral) is the set of concrete norms, customs, and values a society practices. Ethics (ética) is the philosophical/theoretical reflection that critically examines and justifies those moral norms and the principles of good conduct.

19. Contrast Kant's deontological ethics with utilitarianism.

    Kant's deontology judges actions by duty and universal principle (the Categorical Imperative: act only on a maxim you could will as universal law), regardless of consequences. Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill) judges actions by consequences—maximizing happiness for the greatest number.

20. Contrast the social contract views of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau.

    Hobbes: the state of nature is 'war of all against all', so people cede all power to an absolute sovereign (Leviathan). Locke: to protect natural rights (life, liberty, property) via a limited liberal state. Rousseau: to express the 'general will'; sovereignty stays with the people.

21. In Classical Sociology, what is Durkheim's concept of the 'social fact'?

    A social fact is a way of acting external to the individual, coercive, and general across society (e.g., laws, language, religion). Durkheim treated social facts as objective 'things' to be studied scientifically, founding sociological positivism.

22. Summarize Max Weber's concept of social action and rationalization.

    Weber's sociology is comprehensive (compreensiva): it interprets the subjective meaning individuals give to their social actions. He analyzed the rationalization of modern life, bureaucracy, and how the Protestant ethic favored the 'spirit of capitalism.'

23. In Contemporary Sociology, what is the culture industry (indústria cultural) per the Frankfurt School?

    Coined by Adorno and Horkheimer, the culture industry is the mass production of standardized cultural goods as commodities. It promotes conformity, passivity, and alienation, reducing critical thinking and serving capitalist consumer society.

24. In Brazilian Sociology, what are the key ideas of Gilberto Freyre and Sérgio Buarque de Holanda on Brazilian identity?

    Gilberto Freyre ('Casa-Grande e Senzala') emphasized miscegenation and the myth of racial democracy from the plantation household. Sérgio Buarque de Holanda ('Raízes do Brasil') described the 'homem cordial'—Brazilians mixing public and private spheres, favoring personal ties over impersonal rules.

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